,type=downsize)
Gina Rodriguez revealed that her son Charlie Ray is a huge fan of NBA icon Shaquille O'Neal. During an interview with People, the Jane the Virgin alum spoke about how the retired basketball player became her son's uncle. "We took a picture of my little baby Charlie in [Shaq's] shoes. It's just the best picture in the entire world," Rodriguez shares. "We put it on a T-shirt and we gave it to him as a present. It was just the best because [Charlie] calls him Tío Shaq."
"When we saw the first episode [of Lucky 13], Charlie looked at the screen and said, 'Tío Shaq,' and wasn't even fazed it was me," she told the publication. "I was like, 'What about Mom?' I'm like, 'Mama's right there!' And he was like, 'Tío Shaq, Tío Shaq!'"
Rodriguez co-hosts the new show Lucky 13 with Shaquille O'Neal.
Gina welcomed Charlie in 2023
Gina and her husband, Joe LoCicero, welcomed their first son, Charlie, at the beginning of 2023. Gina shared details of her son's moniker with People. "So Charlie holds a lot of beautiful ancestors in his name," she said.
"He's completely developing and evolving every single day. It went from him not making eye contact to making eye contact, him not smiling to smiling," she added. "He's starting to giggle. Every day is a new something. I swear, sometimes it's a nap and he wakes up and there's a new something, and you're just mind-blown," she said. "He's so freaking adorable, and you just want to eat him up."
In February 2024, the actress spoke about Charlie's first birthday. "This first year...you know, last year this week we were in the NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] because my son had a little more difficult experience after coming out," the star shared with the publication. "And to think now...of course, now I'm going to cry. To think now that we have this healthy, vivacious, loving, so loving little boy...there's so much gratitude in the journey. It's laughs and tears."
Before giving birth, she told ET she was thrilled and was carefully preparing for the arrival. “I’m so excited about it. I feel so, so overjoyed,” she said during the interview. “I’m taking some hardcore prenatal classes, working on that pelvic floor,” she told the publication. “My husband is training to be a doula, my doula. He’s really next level.”